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Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the Grand Mutif or top religious official of Saudi Arabia has officially denounced the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) as a threat to the Islamic faith reports the Saudi Press Agency this Tuesday.
Extremist and militant ideas and terrorism which spread decay on earth, destroying human civilization," said al-Sheikh,"are not in any way part of Islam, but are enemy number one of Islam, and Muslims are their first victims." The Grand Mutif became the third of leaders of major Muslim nations that denounced the actions of the ISIS following Indonesia and Egypt.
Only recently, CNN released a video that showed the beheading of an American reporter, James Foley. The militant who killed Foley stated in the video that if the U.S. should continue launching air strikes against the ISIS, the Jihadists will continue to abduct and publicly kill American reporters.
"[We] are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
Saudi Arabia is currently governed as a kingdom through a very strict Islamic school of thought known as Wahhabism. Experts noted through Reuters some differences between Wahhabism and the beliefs of the Islamic State. While Wahhabism punishes severe crimes such as murder, rape through beheading and denounced the Shi'ite Muslims as heretics, unlike the ISIS they are opposed to violent revolt.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have accumulated a considerable amount of territory in the Iraq-Syria area, forcing over a million civilians to flee from their homes to other Kurdistan territories to seek refuge. In response, Kurdish forces who have been supplied with U.S. weapons are continuing to combat the militants and recently succeeded in partially retaking the Mosul Dam. The U.S. government has promised to continually support the Iraqi government through supplying weapons and air strikes.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti made his statement against the Islamic State only a few days after Saudi Arabia donated 100 million USD to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center.
